We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Arthur Caplan, one of the world’s foremost bioethicists, has agreed to serve on the IEET’s Board of Trustees. The other current member of the Board is Martine Rothblatt. We are in the process of gathering a few more members for this body to help the IEET establish a serious philanthropic base, and promote our technoprogressive policy options in the marketplace of ideas.

We have a lot to learn from Art Caplan about advancing progressive biopolitics since he has been doing that very effectively and publicly for three decades. Art is the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the United States’ top bioethics centers. He has authored or edited 30 books, and has published over 500 papers in refereed journals. He writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com, and is a frequent guest and commentator on various media outlets.

Art has also taken an active and direct role in shaping biopolicy. He was a co-founder of the Progressive Bioethics Network organized by the Center for American Progress. He has served on a number of national and international committees including as the chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, the ethics committee of the American Society of Gene Therapy, chair of the advisory committee on bioethics for GlaxoSmithKline, and the special advisory panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on human experimentation on vulnerable subjects. He is currently the co-director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study on Trafficking in Organs and Body Parts.

Art was named one of the fifty most influential people in American health care by Modern Health Care magazine, one of the ten most influential people in America in biotechnology by the National Journal and one of the ten most influential people in the ethics of biotechnology by the editors of Nature Biotechnology.

In December 2008 Discover magazine named Art one of the ten most influential people in science. When Discover’s editors asked for my comment on Art’s career I said

“Caplan has played a singular role in democratizing bioethics. His tireless work translating philosophical debates into understandable ideas, along with his being accessible to the media, has helped millions of people around the world develop more informed opinions about health care and biotechnology. As a champion of accountable government regulation, universal health care, and individual liberty, he has applied the values of the Enlightenment to the 21st century.”